Some of the outside officers said they were excited to participate but not about the cold and snow. Miami police contributed a small contingent of officers, and their department issued them gear they are not used to -- jackets, hats and gloves -- just before they boarded their flight to Washington.
"The weather is different, a real change," said Alex Abaroa, a member of the Miami police force for six years, who touched snow for the first time yesterday morning. "This is exciting, and an honor to be here."
Snow showers continued steadily as workers hung 1,000 U.S. and District flags along Pennsylvania Avenue; removed 24 traffic signal poles and 57 safety bollards from intersections on Pennsylvania between the Capitol and White House; posted 10,000 no-parking signs around town; filled countless potholes and replaced bricks; and leveled manhole covers and welded them shut along the parade route.
Long lines of visitors waiting for taxis snaked out of hotels. At the J.W. Marriott Hotel on 14th Street NW, Marie and Porter Maxwell of Nashville waited cheerfully for 20 minutes for their ride to a Mayflower Hotel luncheon, and whiled away the time comparing shoe choices with strangers in line. Marie Maxwell, 58, a dean at a private girls' school, said she was a friend of Laura Bush's and a fellow Southern Methodist University graduate of 1969 and a sorority sister. The Maxwells will join a group of 100 longtime Bush friends at the White House for lunch after the swearing-in, she said
Porter Maxwell said he was looking forward to talking to "Big George about country music. He's a big fan."
Marie Maxwell said that after so many visits to the White House, she still gets overwhelmed that she's allowed inside "When they open the White House gates and say {grv}'These are guests of the first lady,' I just can't believe it."
About 11:30 a.m., the Hecht's store at Metro Center was packed with unprepared out-of-towners riffling through a dwindling supply of hats and scarves and gloves. One couple, in town from Dripping Springs, Tex., laughed as they waited in the checkout line and said they weren't accustomed to such weather.
Nearby, a tall, assertive woman stopped a fellow shopper and demanded to know where she had found her cozy fur hat.
"This? In Moscow," the hatted woman replied.
The tall woman paused. "Well," she said, "I'm not going there."
The snow stopped falling by midafternoon, but thick, battleship-gray clouds remained as people walked through closed streets toward the Ellipse for the concert and fireworks. Many, including those who left the concert and fireworks show early, said they would be back for today's parade.
Randy Barton, 45, of Pisgah Forest, N.C., described himself as a registered independent, a Baptist preacher and a Bush supporter because he identifies with the president's Christian views.
"We believe in what he stands for," said Barton, who came to the concert with his wife, Doris. "We prayed for this end and I told my wife that if he won, we would go to Washington. We are pro-life, pro-marriage, pro-family, and we support our soldiers, and so does he."
Staff writers Maureen Fan, Manny Fernandez, Steve Ginsberg, Sari Horwitz, Carol D. Leonnig, Lori Montgomery, Paul Schwartzman, Del Quentin Wilber and Clarence Williams contributed to this report.
